Thursday, May 8, 2008

Online summary with Google Maps

Our stand Gamma was located in the Waynesboro Watershed, in Franklin County, Pennsylvania. The stand is 30.4 acres in size (Also see map below in earlier blog).

We used the forth-quarter timber market sales from 2007. The total value of the stand is $73,357.42. The amount of revenue that will be received from the demonstration cuts is $5,539.83. The timber that we are cutting is mainly eastern white pine and white spruce. We had a total of 222 trees per acre, a total board feet tallied by species of 88,715 bf, a volume per acre of 9,046 bf, a total board feet for the total tract of 274,998 bf $2,413.07 value per acre, $73,357.42 value for the total tract, and 103 total ba/ac.

We also inventoried for regeneration and snags, which resulted in finding there was an average of 6.5 trees per plot, but most of that was sassafras and spicebush. Our snag findings gave us an average of 4.2 per plot, which is excellent for wildlife (woodpeckers, etc.).

Our summary recommendations were that we wanted to create a more diversified forests by creating one part of the stand into an uneven aged forest. We are creating two other Silvicultural Demonstration Models as can be seen on the map below. We also want to fix and maintain the existing roads and culverts as well as remove snags along the road for safety reasons. By seeding native grasses on landings and retired roads as well as putting up more bird boxes we will be providing habitat and food for various wildlife, such as deer (though we are not promoting them), various song birds, wood peckers, and various other small game species.